Chapter 18

"A hotdog is a sandwich. There is bread on both sides and meat in the middle. A sandwich," Alice yelled swinging her arms around wildly.

"The bread is connected! A sandwich needs two pieces of bread!" Emmett yelled back.

"If I took some meat, cheese, and lettuce, and instead of two pieces of bread I folded a slice over them, that'd be a sandwich, right?"

Emmett ignored that. "I bet you think that cereal is soup."

"Frankly, I do."

"It's not!" They had been screaming at each other for the last twenty minutes about the silliest topics. I didn't want to get in the middle so I stepped outside.

I was relaxing alone in the yard when my phone rang. The caller ID read Elena so I quickly picked up.

"Care, something's going on and I don't know what it is. Where are you and Stefan?"

"I guess we lost track of time," I apologized. "We're still here in Forks." Elena sighed on the other line.

"What's in Forks that's so important? Everyone's been asking about you and your mom is worried sick."

"We found another pair of doppelgängers and a whole new species of vampires. It's a long story but so much has happened since I left."

"Did you just find out about this?" she asked excitedly. "How is that even possible?"

"I-" I really had lost track of time. No one in Mystic Falls knew about anything that had happened here. "We found out a week or two ago. We'd been so busy that I forgot to tell you."

She was silent for a couple of seconds. "Busy with what, exactly?"

"Well, we had this battle with Victoria and her army of vampires. It was eleven against, like, forty-"

"Who's Victoria?"

"Oh, I guess I forgot to tell you about her."

She cut me off. "You forgot to tell me about anything. You went to war with an army of vampires and you didn't think to call? Care, we could've helped you out!"

"I didn't want you to have to get involved."

Elena sounded hurt. "You know, I'm not weak just because I'm having a hard time losing…" She took a shaky breath.

"Damon," I supplied. "I know, it's hard. I'm so sorry, it would be awful if I had to lose-" I cut myself off, not really knowing what I was saying. "I mean when I lost… my dad." I frowned. That was ages ago.

"Damon?" she asked, confused. "Why would I care about Damon? I mean, I know Stefan isn't doing so great with his death so I don't mean to sound insensitive."

"Bonnie," I corrected myself, remembering her deal with Alaric. "I meant Bonnie. I'd been talking about Damon with Stefan so much that I forgot that you and he weren't close. Of course, you wouldn't care about Damon."

"Um, okay." She sounded unconvinced by my ramblings.

"Anyway," I said, changing the subject. "What were you saying earlier? About 'something going on'?"

"There's a vampire in Mystic Falls."

"Aren't there always vampires in Mystic Falls?"

"Where have you been? Did you also forget about the magic border?" Her voice was full of frustration.

"Oh, yeah. That. So how do you know about this vampire?"

"Matt spotted her. Apparently, someone has been running around town at vampire speed. But it doesn't make sense. Vampires can't enter an anti-witch border because they were created by witches."

"Does he know what she looks like?"

"All he says he could tell was that her hair is red. With her going so fast, and all."

I bit my lip. "Sounds like Victoria. She's the other kind of vampire I was talking about."

"What are they like?"

"They're barely even vampires, other than drinking blood," I explained. "They don't have blood, they sparkle in the sunlight, they can't be staked, and a bunch of other weird stuff."

"Are they like the Originals?"

"Sort of. They can still be killed, though. You have to rip them up."

"Weird. I could ask Alaric but I doubt he'd know because he would've brought it up by now. Anyway, what's my doppelgänger like?"

"You guys are similar enough. We messed up and she's a vampire now."

"Oh no," she said sympathetically. "How's she adjusting?"

"Surprisingly well, actually. She hasn't killed anyone yet. She keeps thanking me for turning her so I don't think she's upset."

"That's good." I could almost hear her nodding on the other end. "Is she strong?"

I glanced through the window and saw Emmett and Alice still shouting. "I think so?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we arm wrestled and I beat her."

"She sounds weak," Elena teased.

"You'd think so. But she won against Emmett which makes no sense at all."

"Who's Emmett?"

Inside, Emmett had picked up Alice and was currently in the process of spinning her around on top of his shoulder. She was slamming her fists into his back but he was just laughing. "He's this really buff dude. Like, way buffer than Jeremy."
"Is he hot?"

I hadn't thought about that at all. Which is pretty strange, being me. "No, I mean, maybe to some people. He's not my type." It wasn't a lie, I really couldn't see Emmett as anything but a friend. Based on yesterday, Stefan seemed to think differently. "Bella beat him in arm wrestling but she couldn't beat me."
"Could he have been going easy on her?"

"No, he was very determined to win. He's not one to be gentle." I watched as he tossed Alice all the way across the living room onto a couch. If she had been human, that could easily have broken her neck. She stood up, looking only somewhat dazed.

"I have no clue, then. Has she said anything else that's weird?"

I thought back to our conversation about the blood bags. "Just that she 'owes me' and that she's better this way. Other than that, no."

"Then I don't know, sorry."

Stefan walked outside to where I was sitting. "I think I might."

"You were listening?" I accused him.

"Is that Stefan? Hi, Stefan!" Elena shouted. "I haven't heard your voice in such a long time!"

He smiled. "Hey, Elena. It's nice to hear you too."

"What'd you say you knew about?" I asked before Elena could say anything more.

"Well, you said that Bella said she owed you. And that everything is better this way."

"Yeah."

"And this started around when she became a vampire, correct?" He looked at me pointedly and suddenly it registered with what he meant.

Elena was still confused. "What are you guys talking about?"

"Wouldn't you know? You were the one sired to-" I stopped when Stefan put a finger to my lips and then shook his head. "Right, that wasn't you. I meant, you saw what happened to Tyler. With Klaus, remember?"

She was quiet for a moment and then exclaimed, "Oh! The sire bond? That was such a long time ago. I had completely forgotten."

Stefan and I gave each other sad looks. After all, we went through to break her sire bond, it was crazy to think Alaric would've erased it right out of her mind. It made sense, there was no way she could remember the bond without remembering who she was bonded too. I walked over to the door and opened it. "Bella? Can you come here?" She rushed down the stairs and was outside with us within a second.

"Yeah, what is it?" she asked.

"Hey, Bella," said Elena.

"Woah, she sounds exactly like me! That is so weird," Bella said, staring at the phone. "Hey there, doppelgänger."

"Hello," Elena said politely. She was used to hearing her own voice by now because of Katherine. "Bella, what's your favorite color?"

Bella looked confused. "Topaz. Why?"

"Pink is better," I told her.

She thought for a second and then nodded. "I changed my mind. Pink is better."

Stefan looked worried. "Are you sure it is?"

She nodded again. "Topaz was my favorite color but I really do like pink more." I had heard her and Alice fighting over dresses enough to know that pink was not her favorite color.

"There's your answer," said Elena.

I'm writing this in Chicago for a trip so I haven't had much time to write. On the way to the airport, I passed through Seattle and thought about Caroline and Stefan :) I will try to update as soon as I can.